Being diagnosed with cancer 10 years ago was hard. Being bombarded with various illnesses and infections since then has been harder.  But Gina Mullin, 49, says that the hardest days are the ones when she can’t eat.

“Food just doesn’t taste good to me anymore—some things I used to love, I can’t stand the smell of,” Mullin says. She remembers a day when she ordered take out from her favorite restaurants—Cracker Barrel and Waffle House—but by the time she got home with the food, she couldn’t force herself to eat a bite.

“I don’t cry much. I don’t even think I cried when I was diagnosed, but I remember crying that day,” she says.

Mullin’s description of her relationship with food is